


tell me how you feel instead of being an ass about it

by aliaaaaaa



Series: webgottrash tumblr prompts [13]
Category: Band of Brothers
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-27
Updated: 2016-03-27
Packaged: 2018-05-29 11:21:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,489
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6372745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliaaaaaa/pseuds/aliaaaaaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is not middle school, Joe. You need to tell him how you feel instead of being hostile towards him. He is so sure that you hate him.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	tell me how you feel instead of being an ass about it

**Author's Note:**

> for an anon who requested - Lieb's actions towards Web make Web think he hates him but that's really how Lieb shows he cares.
> 
> here's my sloppy take.

It had been a very long day for Webster.

He sat for his 18th Century British English literature mid-term exam and he was pretty sure he bombed his Literary Criticism paper on Deconstruction. On top of that, he spent 4 hours holed up in the library – researching for journals and hogging the five books that he would use for his Queer Studies paper – avoiding stink eyes that were thrown his way by his juniors.

He was feeling sluggish, exhausted to the bone – carrying the heavy books across the vast yard to the Easy Dormitory, mindful of the steps as he climbed up to his dorm suite – opening the door silently because he didn’t want to disturb his suite-mate because he would bitch about Web interrupting his sleep.

“Web?” Webster froze then sighed, gently closing the door.

Joe looked at him – blinking slowly – “It’s one in the morning. Some people are trying to sleep,” Joe grumbled as Web undressed – throwing his jeans and t-shirt at the back of his chair.

“Sorry,” Web murmured.

“Where were you anyway?” Joe asked, shifting on his bed – one leg dangling out from the blanket – snuggling his pillow.

“Library. I have an essay due next month –”, Web replied distractedly, booting up his laptop and switching on his desk lamp.

“You’re such a nerd,” Joe mumbled – covering his face from the soft light.

“I am not a nerd,” Web replied, already typing the first paragraph of his essay.

“Only nerds go to the library and spend hours looking for thick tomes. And you are definitely one of them because you have plenty of time to write your essay but you want to finish it tonight.” Joe threw his soft pillow to Web and it landed on Web's shoulder before sliding down on the floor.

“Go to sleep,” Web threw back the pillow and Joe caught it.

“You go to sleep,” Joe grumbled again as Web continued typing his essay.

Joe looked at Web’s broad back, hunched over as he opened one of the thick books he brought back from the library.

Web looked tired, his eyebags were too visible – Joe wanted to kick his study desk so the loose socket would rattle and switched off the laptop. But he turned around to face the wall instead and with the soft sound of Webster’s turning the pages and the click-clack of the keyboard – he drifted back to sleep. 

*

Web came back to the suite dorm when it was almost two in the morning and he knew that Joe was awake because he could hear the sound of Joe softly strumming his guitar drifting into the hallway.

“Jesus Christ, Web. You scared me!” Joe stopped strumming when Web shouldering the door, because his hands were too full with books.

Web unloaded the heavy books on his bed and some of them bounced on the carpeted floor.

“Way to go, asshole. Now everyone in the dorm will wake up from the noise you made,” Joe sneered.

“God Joe, stop your bitching,” Web groaned – tired from studying all day and he really didn’t want to listen to Joe bitching about him.

“Then stop being an asshole and respect other people’s need for some quiet time.” Joe said – voice raising with each words.

Web turned around – hands on his hips – looking at Joe. “You know what, I don’t see why you need to be a bitch because one, you are awake. Why are you still up anyway? Two, you are not even studying and you’re playing your guitar and I can hear you from the hallway,” Web ground his teeth together – trying not to yell at Joe because he was tired and he just got back his Literary Criticism paper and he wasn’t satisfied with the marks.

"Not everyone is a huge nerd like you, Web,“ Joe drawled lazily, looking at Web’s tired face.

“Fuck you. I’m sleeping someplace else tonight.” Web turned around and slammed the door closed that it rattled the wall.

Joe looked at the closed door – breathing a soft ‘fuck’ as he punched his soft pillow.

*

Web didn’t return to the suite for two days and Joe was ready to highkick his own face.

Luz came to meet him this morning – telling him that Web came to his suite, banging on the door – upset and on the verge of throwing tantrum.

“Just go and apologize to your boyfriend,” Luz said, lightening a cigarette in the smoke room.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” Joe grumbled; chewing his bottom lip and trying not to appear guilty.

“But you want him to be,” Luz smiled. “This is not middle school, Joe. You need to tell him how you feel instead of being hostile towards him. He is so sure that you hate him.”

“You two talked about me?” Joe stared at Luz who was grinning at him.

“Well, Web is the one who usually do the talking about you and I just listen because I am such a great friend,” Luz wiggled his eyebrows, looking proud of himself.

“What do you mean he talks about me?” Joe asked, desperate to know.

“Joe, Web has a crush on you since day one. He’s either talking about his classes or you, no in between. But he’s too chicken to tell you because you’re being too hostile to him,” Luz looked at Joe, ruffling his hair.

Joe closed his eyes and breathed out as to calm his wildly beating heart.

“Promise me you will fix this okay? I’m done with seeing Web moping in my room and looking sad because of you.”

Joe knew he had to make things right.

*

Web was hiding in the library.

There was no other word for it but hiding. Luz had kicked him out of his suite, telling him to go back and make up with Joe. But Web ran to the library instead – sitting at his favorite spot – the desk by the tall window, where the sunlight trickled in softly – trying to read the Queer theory but failing because his mind kept wandering back to Joe.

Joe Liebgott – the one guy that he had a crush on since the first day he arrived on campus – and that was two years ago. Web thought that after few months the crush would dissipate but something about Joe intrigued him or maybe he was a masochist – liking someone as -hostile as Joe, yearning for something more than being just suite-mate.

Web sighed and tried to focus on his text but then a shadow fell across the book and a body slid into the seat opposite of him.

 _Joe_.

They looked at each other in silence; the background murmur of the library seemed quiet compared to sound of his heart beating.

Web noticed that Joe looked nervous as he chewed his bottom lip and then he opened his mouth.

“I’m sorry,” Joe said and Web waited.

“I’m sorry for being an asshole,” Joe continued and Web gnawed his bottom lip.

Joe rubbed his face and sighed.

“I don’t hate you,” Joe whispered as if imparting a secret.

At that, Web closed his eyes because he knew Luz told Joe something.

“Are you sure? Because you’ve been nothing but hostile to me,” Web whispered back.

Joe looked annoyed. “I worry okay. I worry that you will end up sleeping in the gutter somewhere because you were too exhausted to crawl back to the suite.”

“That still doesn’t explain the hostility and why would you worry?” Web asked furiously.

“Because I care about you, asshole! You think I stay up every night for fun? I wait for you to come back to the suite safely!” Joe whispered, voice raising a bit towards the end of his sentence.

Web gaped at Joe, his mouth fell open.

“You care about me? And yet you’re being hostile to me.”

“That’s just who I am! I am an emotionally stunt human being that don’t know how to express my feeling properly, fuck!” Joe’s voice was loud and someone shushed him.

Web felt something akin to a flower blooming inside his chest.

“You like me,” Web stated.

“Yeah,” Joe replied, sulking.

“You could have told me you know, like normal people do.”

“Well, I’m not normal,” Joe grumbled and Web smiled before he brushed his ankle against Joe’s.

“I like you too,” Web confessed. “Even though you’re such a bitchy hostile asshole to me.”

Joe’s stare burned Web’s skin.

“Looks like you’re not normal too, nerd.” Joe smirked and Web raised his middle finger to him, biting his lips to stop himself from smiling.

“Wanna head back to the suite?” Web asked shyly.

Joe grinned and helped Web gathered his books.

*

Later – when they lay on Joe’s bed; his fingers in Web’s hair, stroking and tugging lightly – he would tell Web to get some sleep because his essay can wait and like that – his head pillowed on Joe’s chest – Web slept soundly for the first time in weeks.

**Author's Note:**

> first posted on [webgottrash](http://webgottrash.tumblr.com/post/141779951377/would-love-if-you-could-make-liebs-actions)


End file.
